Subject: Sweet, but –
Author:
Posted on: 2019-03-17 12:24:00 UTC
He has been conceived in the heat of a mating flight for her brown queen dragon...
– don’t you think this should be "had been"?
(How do I get this on a casual read when I miss the obvious in full beta reader mode?)
HG
"Henry"
In which Jenni adopts her son.
I'll just copy my notes from the end of the piece:
Trivia - I started writing this in July 2015, responding to Jenni's complaints about not giving her any fluff with her son. Then I totally forgot about it for four years, until I [logged in to make a different entry for posterity]. ^^; But now it's a thing!
More trivia - In his fic of origin, Henry was going to be called Jacob Michael Snape. Bleh!
I don't think I knew that Nurse Davies had a first name, let alone that it was Edward, when I decided to name Henry after Dr. Henry Jekyll, whose evil alter ego is Mr. Edward Hyde. Looking it all up again only to find that is just the cherry on top of my sundae. ^^
Oh, and adding this: I think Nursery-staffer Christine was an arbitrary choice of a name that only has one very old mention attributed to it, but it could have been deliberate. I have no idea. It worked pretty well for a joke, though. *g*
~NeshomehWas it super-effective?
I'm slightly embarrassed that while I opened the fic the day you posted it, I didn't manage to actually finish it until today. But, better late than never, as they say.
It was really sweet! I very much enjoyed it. I haven't read much straight up feel-good fluff recently so that was nice, and the literary references were great fun (though I think one or two flew over my head; inevitable, really, when dealing with worlds like the PPC).
In any event, it was a good read! Thanks for sharing.
Funny coincidence: I go in to work early on Thursdays, and treat myself to breakfast at Starbucks as compensation. ^_^ *toasts with Starbucks cup*
I'm glad you enjoyed the story!
Literary references included the Dragonriders of Pern series, the Harry Potter series, Jekyll & Hyde the stage musical, and the Phantom of the Opera stage musical. I think that's it, unless something else sneaked in without my notice. Stranger things have happened!
Thanks,
~Neshomeh
:P
(Though speaking of that show, the season 3 trailer dropped and it'll be coming out July 4th!)
This was so very sweet. It captures perfectly that first minute of holding your new baby. My eyes got more than a little misty reading it.
You would know, so that means a lot. Yay. ^_^
~Neshomeh
Yay! Good to read some more of Jenni's backstory, especially with a rare glimpse from her perspective. It goes a long way to explain the way she tends to react around people, and why she's so attached to Henry. I love how focused she remains on baby Henry, even when the two Nursery staffers keep trying to talk to her.
It's amazing how details from years ago seem to have a tendency to slot into place for us, isn't it? "Edward" "Henry" and "Christine" were all named by different people, but they all fit together to write a joke about stage musical references in 2019 that took place in 2009.
We'll collectively have to work on fleshing out Christine a bit. "The woman in charge" isn't very specific, but I can imagine the Nursery as being one division that didn't receive a Flower as its head, since understanding animalian minds and bodies is a little more critical to child-rearing than it is for most divisions. Or maybe the Flowers just find humanoid development cycles too squicky, and none of them wanted the position?
—doctorlit really needs to make progress on his Nursery spin-off. Just as soon as he finishes Kingdom Hearts 3.
ghc
If you believe the Histories, the Nursery started off being for Plants, and likely would have had a Plant in charge. At some point, it moved away from that, though, so Christine could be the woman in charge of the human part.
... D'you reckon the Nursery might actually be a department, with divisions for infants, housing/daycare, schooling, and so forth? And maybe a tiny one for Plants, if new ones still happen?
Tangentially, the other day, I was looking around to see if I could find the earliest, or at least an early reference to agents bringing a Sue's kid back to HQ instead of assassinating it. I could swear I remember reading something to the effect of "we can give it to the Bleeding Hearts back at Headquarters," but I have no idea where it is. I could only find a couple references to the Bleeding Hearts Unit of the DMS, too, and nothing to do with taking care of kids with them. (I think they were more about non-violently dealing with Sues?)
The Nursery wiki page is in a sad state, though. It would be nice to fix it, which is why I was poking around. If you (or anyone!) know where to find some good references besides the couple on the Complete List of PPC Fiction, I'd love to have them.
Anyway: Thanks! I'm glad you like Jenni's POV, because there's more steadily working its way down the writing pipeline.
I love how details align like that, too. ^_^
~Neshomeh
I could easily see the Nursery being a department, if more of us starting writing about the kids our agents adopt instead of side characters that pop up occasionally. Not sure there's much need to change it at the moment, though.
—doctorlit, neglecting his writing
I thought it was in Origins, but I can't back that up with just a quick scan. However, it is mentioned in this story: "Minor Gods" by Huinesoron.
~Neshomeh
Henry-Jenni bonding is always cute and that got a proper grin out of me. But I have to say... I think getting a little more insight into Jenni's true nature was the most interesting part about this. :)
This did give me an opportunity to put down in words some of the things I'd sorta-kinda had figured out about her but never really articulated before. I think it makes sense, even, if you don't examine it too hard. ^_^
~Neshomeh
He has been conceived in the heat of a mating flight for her brown queen dragon...
– don’t you think this should be "had been"?
(How do I get this on a casual read when I miss the obvious in full beta reader mode?)
HG
I doubt I could ever be this... matronly, over a child, but it was very sweet to read! ^^
Would Nameless Admin mind getting it?
Thank you! ^^
It may be that I'm working on a PPC Young Wizards story that includes you, a la Natural History. As in that story, my inclination is to use Board names throughout; however, your comments at the Shipfest make me think I should check with you first.
(This one isn't a shipfic of any description, I hasten to add... I just don't want to upset anyone.)
hS
And yes, Marisa would have a slightly different Boarder name in the PPC Young Wizards 'verse - so using either her first name or 'MSF' would work fine.